Let's all agree on this: Outkast's big reunion got off to a rough start. Last week the Atlanta duo kicked off an extensive anniversary run with a headlining slot at the Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival. And it wasn't quite what you'd expect from the groundbreaking group revered for their bouncy and trippy Southern fried rap. Depending on whom you asked, the crowd wasn't into it, and André 3000 wasn't into it. The duo lacked chemistry, the production was spotty and the show as a whole was seriously underrehearsed.

There are certain long-dormant rock acts and broken-up bands that cause fans to wring their hands in anticipation of musical detente. These are bands that fairly demand to be reunited in the service of a career-defining set at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. And then there was the Cult's performance on opening night of the fest's second weekend: an exercise in Dad Rock gone wrong that left most of its audience dazed and disappointed with the British band's baffling decision to omit most of its biggest hits in favor of catalog fare and new “compositions” that left the faithful scratching their heads.

April 18, 2014 | By Randall Roberts, Los Angeles Times Pop Music Critic

This post has been updated. See below for details. Early Friday morning in the high desert outside of Palm Springs, menacing Baltimore synth pop band Future Islands was responsible for a memorably challenging, if ultimately victorious, sold-out gig. Drawing a wild bunch of uber-fans to journey up a winding, moonlit road to Pappy & Harriet's, the far-out roadhouse at the edge of cellphone coverage, the quartet performed one of its typically rambunctious...

And on this week's episode of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival ... As attendees happily filed into the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Friday for the second and final weekend of the Goldenvoice-promoted Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, there were a few cliff-hangers left over from last weekend. Among them: Will Pharrell Williams bring out another all-star parade of guest stars? Will every artist on Saturday be in a significantly better mood without the threat of a dust storm?

The bloom was off the rose. The genie, out of the bottle. The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival's big reveals - its giant roving spaceman art piece and special guests Slash, Justin Bieber and Beyonce - had long since emerged from the wings and into cultural memory. In its second back-to-back weekend, the festival was no longer the new new thing it had been in the breathless months leading up to the grand unveiling of Coachella's 2014 lineup. It was no longer the new new thing compelling fan wonderment at how OutKast's reunion might pan out ( comme si, comme ca, if we're being generous)

Organizers of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival expressed sadness Friday over the death of a concertgoer after an apparent drug or alcohol overdose. The woman, identified as Kimchi Truong of Oakland, collapsed in the taxi area of the festival about 2 a.m. Saturday and was taken to JFK Memorial Hospital in Indio, said Sgt. Curt James of the sheriff-coroner's office. Truong was later taken to the Desert Regional Medical Center, where she remained until she died about 2:30 p.m. Thursday.

Before the second weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival kicked off on Friday, Indio police were investigating a death connected to last weekend's festivities. The Riverside County sheriff-coroner called it the result of an apparent drug or alcohol overdose. A 24-year-old woman in Indio at last weekend's festival died Thursday, the Riverside County sheriff-coroner said Friday morning. Kimchi Truong of Oakland collapsed while attending Coachella on Saturday and was taken to JFK Memorial Hospital in Indio.

The death of a 24-year-old woman who died of an apparent overdose at the Coachella festival was an "isolated incident," event promoter Goldenvoice said in a statement Friday. The woman, identified as Kimchi Truong of Oakland, died of an apparent drug or alcohol overdose after attending the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio last weekend, the Riverside County sheriff-coroner said Friday. In a statement, Goldenvoice said it was "saddened" to learn of her death.

INDIO, Calif. - Dee Dee Penny, lead singer of the Dum Dum Girls, is no stranger to performing at giant summer musical events. At the first of the two-weekend Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival events last Friday, her retro-rock act played before thousands of ecstatic fans. She was just one of an eclectic roster of female artists who galvanized Coachella audiences. Teenage provocateur Lorde dazzled amid a howling dust storm in her summer music festival debut. R&B diva Solange got a surprise assist from her superstar sister, Beyoncé Knowles.

Bastille rockin' the stage, Solange at the turntable, a caviar bar on ice and a Jeff Koons on the lawn. Jimmy Choo knows how to party alright. And party the brand did on Tuesday night in L.A. when creative director Sandra Choi hosted a launch for the new, tomboyish rock 'n' roll-themed CHOO.08 collection and newly redesigned Rodeo Drive store. The bash was held at the Beverly Hills Mid-Century home of Eugenio Lopez Alonso, the international art patron who recently sponsored the opening of the new Museo Jumex contemporary art museum in Mexico City.